Search NASA⌕ Search

SEARCH · Search NASA

Results for “Lunar Simulations”

Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 163 records · Page 9
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS2016

Near-Infrared Monitoring of Volatiles in Frozen Lunar Simulants While Drilling

In Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) focuses on using local resources for mission consumables. The approach can reduce mission cost and risk. Lunar polar volatiles, e.g. water ice, have been detected via remote sensing measurements and represent a potential resource for both humans and propellant. The exact nature of the horizontal and depth distribution of the ice remains to be documented in situ. NASA's Resource Prospector mission (RP) is intended to investigate the polar volatiles using a rover, drill, and the RESOLVE science package. RP component level hardware is undergoing testing in relevant lunar conditions (cryovacuum). In March 2015 a series of drilling tests were undertaken using the Honeybee Robotics RP Drill, Near-Infrared Volatile Spectrometer System (NIRVSS), and sample capture mechanisms (SCM) inside a 'dirty' thermal vacuum chamber at the NASA Glenn Research Center. The goal of these tests was to investigate the ability of NIRVSS to monitor volatiles during drilling activities and assess delivery of soil sample transfer to the SCMs in order to elucidate the concept of operations associated with this regolith sampling method.

Neutron Spectrometer System↗
NASA NTRS2022

Repeatable Method for Conducting Chamber Studies of Aerosolized Lunar Simulant

The Artemis Mission goal of returning humans to the Moon requires new solutions to engineering problems posed by the extremely harsh environment of the lunar surface. Using the Apollo missions as historical evidence, dust will be a significant obstacle in the success of a sustained human and robotic presence. Hardware such as tools, machinery, extra-vehicular activity (EVA) suits, and components of landers and habitats will all be subject to various degrees of contamination by lunar dust, and each piece of hardware has its own considerations for performance under dusty conditions. Such hardware must be tested and verified for use during lunar missions under guidance from NASA technical standards. Aerosolized dust can be used to test and verify hardware in two ways: volumetric and surface area loading. Volumetric loading (measured in mass of airborne dust per volume of air) may cause hardware to malfunction via dust ingestion or other mechanisms. Surface area loading (measured in mass of settled dust per surface area) may cause hardware to malfunction by altering its thermal properties or by fouling optical surfaces such as camera lenses. This publication describes a method to achieve a stable, user-determined volumetric loading in an arbitrary chamber along with recommendations for how to use such chambers for customized hardware testing.

Benjamin J Sumlin↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Lunar Dust level sensor & Effects on Surfaces (LDES): Percent Area Coverage of Lunar Simulant on a Surface and Fairy Castle Structures

With NASA’s goal of returning humans to the Moon, it has become increasingly important to understand the impact of lunar regolith on spacecraft systems. The ability to measure the level of dust coverage on a surface is essential. Developing an accurate technique to determine percent area coverage is challenging due to the unique and complex layering of the dust particles on the surface, creating fairy castle structures that form complex towers, bridges, and buttresses using the smallest of dust particles as building blocks. For this study, these structures have been simulated using a unique dust distributor device and imaged with a scanning electron microscope. The results show the dusted surface’s complex topology, thus demonstrating the difficulty with determining the percent area of dust coverage. Implications for dust buildup on spacecraft, even at the microscopic level, can include degraded heat transfer and altered optical properties, making continuation of this research critical to support future human exploration of the Moon.

percent area coverage↗
NASA NTRS2010

Total Synthesis of Ionic Liquid Systems for Dissolution of Lunar Simulant

For purposes of Space Resource Utilization, work in the total synthesis of a new ionic liquid system for the extraction of oxygen and metals from lunar soil is studied and described. Reactions were carried out according to procedures found in the chemical literature, analyzed via Thin-Layer Chromatography and 1H Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy and purified via vacuum distillation and rotary evaporation. Upon final analysis via 1H NMR, it was found that while the intermediates of the synthesis had been achieved, unexpected side products were also present. The mechanisms and constraints of the synthesis are described as well as the final results of the project and recommendations for continued study

Sharpe, Robert J.↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Determination of Percent Area Coverage of Lunar Simulant on a Surface and Observations of Fairy Castle Structures

With NASA’s goal of returning humans to the Moon, it has become increasingly important to understand the impact of lunar regolith on spacecraft systems. The ability to measure the level of dust coverage on a surface is essential. Developing an accurate technique to determine percent area coverage is challenging due to the unique and complex layering of the dust particles on the surface, creating fairy castle structures that form complex towers, bridges, and buttresses using the smallest of dust particles as building blocks. For this study, these structures have been simulated using a unique dust distributor device and imaged with a scanning electron microscope. The results show the dusted surface’s complex topology, thus demonstrating the difficulty with determining the percent area of dust coverage. Implications for dust buildup on spacecraft, even at the microscopic level, can include degraded heat transfer and altered optical properties, making continuation of this research critical to support future human exploration of the Moon.

lunar dust↗
NASA NTRS2024

Determination of Percent Area Coverage of Lunar Simulant on a Surface and Observations of Fairy Castle Structures

With NASA’s goal of returning humans to the Moon, it has become increasingly important to understand the impact of lunar regolith on spacecraft systems. The ability to measure the level of dust coverage on a surface is essential. Developing an accurate technique to determine percent area coverage is challenging due to the unique and complex layering of the dust particles on the surface, creating what is called fairy castle structures that form complex towers, bridges, and buttresses using the smallest of dust particles as building blocks. For this study, these structures have been simulated using a unique dust distributor device and imaged with a scanning electron microscope. The results show the dusted surface’s complex topology, thus demonstrating the difficulty with determining the percent area of dust coverage. Implications for dust buildup on spacecraft can include issues for heat transfer, making continuation of this research critical to support future human exploration of the Moon.

Emma J Quick↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

A Preliminary Assessment of Physical Demand During Simulated Lunar Surface Extravehicular Activities

Future Artemis missions will require more advanced spacesuits to support exploration and science activities on the Lunar surface. Preparing for these missions requires an understanding of the physical and cognitive demand of performing common surface extravehicular activity (EVA) tasks in a suited partial-gravity environment. This study aims to characterize physical demand during exploration EVA tasks in the Artificial Gravity Offload System (ARGOS) as a function of the task and operational environment itself. Two subjects completed two days of EVA simulations at ARGOS in the Mark III spacesuit offloaded to Lunar gravity (1/6G). Metabolic rate (MR) and heart rate (HR) were continuously recorded while subjects completed an end-to-end EVA as well as standalone tasks. Understanding the physical demand to complete exploration EVA tasks will be instrumental to the future success of exploration spacesuit designs and missions. Further work in this study will be needed to characterize MR during exploration EVA tasks, including expanding the subject pool and testing new suit designs.

Taylor E Schlotman↗
NASA NTRS1992

Vacuum melting and mechanical testing of simulated lunar glasses

Lunar silicate glasses may possess superior mechanical properties compared to terrestrial glasses because the anhydrous lunar environment should prevent hydrolytic weakening of the strong Si-O bonds. This hypothesis was tested by melting, solidifying, and determining the fracture toughness of simulated mare and highlands composition glasses in a high vacuum chamber. The fracture toughness, K(IC), of the resulting glasses was obtained via microindentation techniques. K(IC) increased as the testing environment was changed from air to a vacuum of 10 exp -7 torr. However, this increase in toughness may not result solely from a reduction in the hydrolytic weakening effect; the vacuum-melting process produced both the formation of spinel crystallites on the surfaces of the glass samples and significant changes in the compositions which may have contributed to the improved K(IC).

Carsley, J. E.↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Application of Regolith Polymer Composite Fused Granular Fabrication Construction in Simulated Lunar Conditions

NASA’s Artemis program has the goal of creating a sustained lunar presence to provide unprecedented opportunities for scientific discovery and to ensure industry’s access to the unlimited resources and commercial potential in space. To achieve this goal, NASA must incrementally develop and expand its capabilities beyond the short lunar stays of the Apollo program to a robust continued presence with infrastructure and equipment to reduce mission risk. Kennedy Space Center’s Granular Mechanics and Regolith Operations laboratory (a.k.a. Swamp Works) has partnered with SpaceFactory and LERA Consulting Structural Engineers to develop the architectural and structural design of a robotically constructable unpressurized shelter. The shelter, called Lunar Infrastructure Asset (LINA), is designed to protect astronauts and surface assets from radiation, meteoroid impact, thermal gradients, and to withstand moonquakes. A Fused Granular Fabrication (FGF) construction process using regolith polymer composites was developed. The construction system and associated print parameters are discussed along with the environmental simulation equipment and a summary of test conditions. Test samples were printed in dirty thermal vacuum conditions (~10-3 torr, ~-200 °C,) and subscale versions of LINA were printed on a regolith simulant substrate in vacuum (~10-4 torr). Full scale LINA design optimization, simulation, and construction concept of operations are discussed.

lunar infrastructure↗
NASA NTRS1973

Lunar powder simulator under lunarlike conditions - Dielectric properties

A powered basalt simulating lunar regolith material was subjected to temperature variations similar to those found in the lunar surface during a lunation. To obtain the dielectric response under simulated lunar conditions, all measurements were made in appropriate vacuums which, in addition, allowed for an evaluation of moisture effects in the powdered sample. It is found that during approximately seven tenths of a lunation the dielectric response of a 5- to 10-cm surface layer should be fairly constant. During the remaining three tenths, it should undergo rapid changes. Changes in the dielectric properties of the surface layer should be controlled by temperature. In the subjacent layers such changes are thought to be controlled by the increasing density of the regolith.

Alvarez, R.↗
NASA NTRS2022

Simulated Lunar Surface Hydration Measurements using Multispectral Lidar at 3 µm

Accurately measuring the variability of spectroscopic signatures of hydration (H2O + OH) on the illuminated lunar surface at 3 µm as a function of latitude, lunar time of day, and composition is crucial to determining the generation and destruction mechanisms of OH species and understanding the global water cycle. A prime complication in analysis of the spectroscopic feature is the accurate removal of thermal emission, which can modify or even eliminate the hydration feature depending on the data processing methods used and assumptions made. An orbital multispectral lidar, with laser illumination at key diagnostic wavelengths, would provide uniform, zero-phase geometry, complete latitude and time of day coverage from a circular polar orbit, and is agnostic to the thermal state of the surface. We have performed measurement simulations of a four-wavelength multispectral lidar using spectral mixtures of hydrated mid-ocean ridge basalt (MORB) glasses and lunar regolith endmembers to assess the lidar performance in measuring hydration signatures on the lunar surface. Our results show a feasible system with wavelengths at 1.5 µm, 2.65 µm, 2.8 µm, and 3.1 µm can measure lunar hydration with a precision of 52 ppm (1σ) or better. These results, combined with the uniform measurement capabilities of multispectral lidar make it a valuable spectroscopic technique for elucidating mechanisms of OH/H2O generation, migration, and destruction.

D. R. Cremons↗
NASA NTRS2007

Surface Operations: Two Case Studies of Simulated Lunar Operations

In September 2007, a team of scientists and engineers from several NASA centers participated in a field exercise at Meteor Crater, Arizona. The tests in this field exercise utilized recently developed robots of varying scales and capabilities and humans in pressurized space suits. Two examples of operations performed in the field are presented: a surface operations scenario involving suited crew supported by a number of mobile robots and setup operations for accessing a crater. The surface operations scenario simulated the end of a crew sortie and involved the following agents: 1) Suit subjects from Johnson Space Center s (JSC) advanced spacesuit laboratory 2) JSC's unpressurized crewed rover testbed, SCOUT 3) The Jet Propulsion Laboratory s (JPL) rough terrain, payload carrying robot, ATHLETE 4) JSC's Astronaut assist robot, Robonaut 5) Ames Research Center's (ARC) inspection robot, K-10. Operations began with ATHLETE positioning a pressurized rover compartment (PRC) as two crew members drove the SCOUT unpressurized rover from the field. The crew dismounted SCOUT, walked to the PRC for recharging. Robonaut then removed a sample box from the SCOUT equipment tray. K-10 then performed a drive around inspection of SCOUT, assembling a mosaic image. Lastly, the SCOUT vehicle was remotely driven to the next site. The setup operations for crater access scenario involved ATHLETE and Robonaut. This scenario began with Robonaut approaching ATHLETE and extracting a tether line. ATHLETE then extracted a drill and drilled an anchor into the surface. Robonaut then reconnected the tether to the anchor and backed away. ATHLETE is then ready to descend into the crater. This descending into the crater step is currently in the planning phase.

Bluethmann, William J.↗
NASA NTRS2013

Lunar Simulants, Analogues, and Standards: Needs and Realities for Mission Technologies Development

Integration of In-Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) capabilities into missions present both challenges as well as benefits for future missions to the Moon and Mars. However, since ISRU systems and capabilities have not flown, mission planners have been hesitant to include ISRU capabilities in mission critical roles, thereby significantly reducing the benefits that ISRU can provide in mission mass and cost reductions. For ISRU systems to provide products and services to 'customers' such as life support, propulsion, and power systems, close development of requirements, hardware, and operations between ISRU and these systems are required. To address these development and incorporation challenges, NASA and csA initiated a series of analog field test demonstrations at sites in Hawaii. Two tests completed in November of 2008 and February of 2010 have demonstrate all the critical steps in operating ISRU systems on the lunar surface at relevant mission scales as well as integration with power and propulsion systems. The third field test planned for July 2012 will demonstrate that a mission to the lunar poles to locate and characterize ice and other volatiles is possible in a highly integrated mission with multiple space agencies. These analog field tests have shown that not only are ISRU systems feasible at relevant mission scales, that they can be successfully integrated into mission architectures.

Sibille, Laurent↗
NASA NTRS1996

Dissolution kinetics of a lunar glass simulant at 25 degrees C: the effect of pH and organic acids

The dissolution kinetics of a simulated lunar glass were examined at pH 3, 5, and 7. Additionally, the pH 7 experiments were conducted in the presence of citric and oxalic acid at concentrations of 2 and 20 mM. The organic acids were buffered at pH 7 to examine the effect of each molecule in their dissociated form. At pH 3, 5, and 7, the dissolution of the synthetic lunar glass was observed to proceed via a two-stage process. The first stage involved the parabolic release of Ca, Mg, Al, and Fe, and the linear release of Si. Dissolution was incongruent, creating a leached layer rich in Si and Ti which was verified by transmission electron microscopy (TEM). During the second stage the release of Ca, Mg, Al, and Fe was linear. A coupled diffusion/surface dissolution model was proposed for dissolution of the simulated lunar glass at pH 3, 5, and 7. During the first stage the initial release of mobile cations (i.e., Ca, Mg, Al, Fe) was limited by diffusion through the surface leached layer of the glass (parabolic release), while Si release was controlled by the hydrolysis of the Si-O-Al bonds at the glass surface (linear release). As dissolution continued, the mobile cations diffused from greater depths within the glass surface. A steady-state was then reached where the diffusion rate across the increased path lengths equalled the Si release rate from the surface. In the presence of the organic acids, the dissolution of the synthetic lunar glass proceeded by a one stage process. The release of Ca, Mg, Al, and Fe followed a parabolic relationship, while the release of Si was linear. The relative reactivity of the organic acids used in the experiments was citrate > oxalate. A thinner leached layer rich in Si/Ti, as compared to the pH experiments, was observed using TEM. Rate data suggest that the chemisorption of the organic anion to the surface silanol groups was responsible for enhanced dissolution in the presence of the organic acids. It is proposed that the increased rate of Si release is responsible for the one stage parabolic release of mobile cations and the relatively thin leached layer compared to experiments at pH 3 and 5.

NASA Discipline Life Support Systems↗